Politics, pop culture and entertainment news of interest to the LGBTQ community
(image via Depositphotos)Some news stories you might have missed:
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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland (screen capture)Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced the appointment of a special counsel to look into President Biden’s handling of classified documents after documents had been found in two locations related to Biden. Continue reading “Attorney General Appoints Special Counsel In Biden Documents Case”
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| Special Counsel Robert Mueller |
For the first time since the conclusion of the Special Counsel probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by Donald Trump, Robert Mueller spoke at the Department of Justice about his team’s report.
Mueller reiterated his office’s conclusion was that there was “insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy” against the Trump campaign in relation to Russian efforts to interfere with the election.
He also made clear that Trump was not cleared of obstruction of justice by the Special Counsel.
“If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not committed a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime,” Mueller said about the conclusion of the Russia investigation.
He added that he did not charge Trump with obstruction of justice because Department of Justice policy prohibits charging a sitting president with a federal crime. “Charging the president with a crime was therefore not an option we could consider,” said Mueller.
The key line that will be played over and over.Robert Mueller: “As set forth in the report, after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”
Via ABC pic.twitter.com/7rSlmtbDtb— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 29, 2019
Shorter Mueller:
1. I wasn't allowed to charge the President with a crime.
2. I believe he committed crimes, or I would say otherwise.
3. Congress does have the authority to charge him with a crime.— David Jolly (@DavidJollyFL) May 29, 2019
“The constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing.” —Robert MuellerMake no mistake: Mueller’s report is an impeachment referral to Congress. pic.twitter.com/jWQjrnxC4U
— CAP Action (@CAPAction) May 29, 2019
Robert Mueller made it clear: No exoneration.— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) May 29, 2019
Robert Mueller Recap:Russia attacked our election but there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy. 🤦🏼♂️
Trump obstructed, but I couldn’t do anything about it because of an antiquated DOJ policy. 🤦🏼♂️
Barr is not a bad guy. 🤦🏼♂️
I’m not testifying to Congress. 🤦🏼♂️
— Ryan Knight is #AllInForWarren (@ProudResister) May 29, 2019
“The Constitution provides means to hold a president accountable outside of the criminal justice system.”— Robert Mueller, metaphorically winking at Congress.
— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) May 29, 2019
Robert Mueller could not be more clear that he believes Congress needs to step up now, explicitly saying that charging a sitting President with a crime requires a process other than the criminal justice system allows.There is no other reason for his statement today.
— David Jolly (@DavidJollyFL) May 29, 2019
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| Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan |
Rep. Justin Amash surprised some folks earlier the month when he became the first Republican in Congress to call for impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump.
Today, Amash issued a lengthy 25-tweet statement outlining how he views Attorney General William Barr “misrepresented key aspects” of the Special Counsel’s report.
Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented key aspects of Mueller’s report and decisions in the investigation, which has helped further the president’s false narrative about the investigation.— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
After receiving Mueller’s report, Barr wrote and released a letter on March 24 describing Barr’s own decision not to indict the president for obstruction of justice. That letter selectively quotes and summarizes points in Mueller’s report in misleading ways.— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Mueller’s report says he chose not to decide whether Trump broke the law because there’s an official DoJ opinion that indicting a sitting president is unconstitutional, and because of concerns about impacting the president’s ability to govern and pre-empting possible impeachment.— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Barr’s letter doesn’t mention those issues when explaining why Mueller chose not to make a prosecutorial decision. He instead selectively quotes Mueller in a way that makes it sound—falsely—as if Mueller’s decision stemmed from legal/factual issues specific to Trump’s actions.— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
But, in fact, Mueller finds considerable evidence that several of Trump’s actions detailed in the report meet the elements of obstruction, and Mueller’s constitutional and prudential issues with indicting a sitting president would preclude indictment regardless of what he found.— Justin Amash (@justinamash) May 28, 2019
Amash goes on to cite Donald Trump Jr.’s Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer and the inability of Robert Mueller to secure a proper interview with Donald Trump as concerning issues in the Special Counsel’s report that Barr seems to have obfuscated.
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| Donald Trump |
Lots of news this morning about the release of the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Here’s just a few take-aways from the report.
First up, Mueller made clear in his report that he lacked confidence to clear Donald Trump of obstruction of justice but suggested Congress could take action on at least 10 instances where the president sought to interfere with the probe.
CNN is posting excerpts from the Mueller report.
“With respect to whether the President can be found to have obstructed justice by exercising his powers under Article II of the Constitution, we concluded that Congress has the authority to prohibit a President’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice.”
“The Russian contacts consisted of business connections, offers of assistance to the campaign, invitations for candidate Trump and Putin to meet in person, invitations for campaign officials and representatives of the Russian government to meet, and policy positions seeking improved US-Russian relations.”
“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment. The evidence we obtained about the President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent us from conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”
Additionally, the Washington Post reports on Trump’s reaction when he was told the Special Counsel had been appointed:
In May 2017, then Attorney General Jeff Sessions told Trump that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein had just appointed Mueller as special counsel.
Trump slumped back in his chair, according to notes from Jody Hunt, Sessions’s chief of staff. “Oh my God, this is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m f—ed,” Trump said. Trump further laid into Sessions for his recusal, saying Sessions had let him down.
“Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency,” Trump said, according to Hunt’s notes. “It takes years and years and I won’t be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.” The next morning, Trump tweeted, “This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!”
Plus, as Reuters reports Mueller did find that Russian operatives organized political rallies in support of Trump and opposing Hillary Clinton’s candidacy:
Special counsel Robert Mueller in his highly-anticipated report said his team identified “dozens” of U.S. political rallies organized on social media by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian troll farm that was later indicted for attempting to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.
According to Mueller’s report, which was released on Thursday, the IRA organized political rallies in the U.S. using social media starting in 2015 and continued to coordinate rallies after the 2016 election.
The IRA, a Russian troll farm with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence agencies, organized pro-Trump and anti-Clinton rallies on U.S. soil for years, including events in New York, Florida and Pennsylvania. The Trump campaign put a post on Facebook about one of the IRA-organized rallies in Miami, Fla. in 2016, Mueller noted.
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| Donald Trump |
Now, if you had a report that “totally exonerated” you of any wrongdoing, wouldn’t you want the world to see that?
Donald Trump tweeted this morning questioning why Congressional Democrats should be allowed to see the report filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“Why should Radical Left Democrats in Congress have a right to retry and examine the $35,000,000 (two years in the making) No Collusion Mueller Report, when the crime committed was by Crooked Hillary, the DNC and Dirty Cops? Attorney General Barr will make the decision!”
Why should Radical Left Democrats in Congress have a right to retry and examine the $35,000,000 (two years in the making) No Collusion Mueller Report, when the crime committed was by Crooked Hillary, the DNC and Dirty Cops? Attorney General Barr will make the decision!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2019
Trump previously told the press that he wanted the report released to the public.
Now, why had he changed his mind? #ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmm
@realDonaldTrump:
First of all, Freedom of Information Act.Secondly, it’s not just the “Radical Left Democrats in Congress” that want to examine the report, it’s America.
Lastly…we as taxpayers paid for the Mueller Report & now we’d like to read what we payed for.#TrumpLies https://t.co/Wx4Oj81Uum
— momlovesfaith (@momlovesfaith) April 13, 2019
Not retrying, just seeing it. What’s the use of having an investigation without reading the findings? Besides, it’s not just the “radical left democrats” who want to see the report. It’s all Americans, #dividerInChief #protesterInChief— Diane Rabinowitz (@samadhiP) April 13, 2019
Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee on budget matters, Attorney General William P. Barr said he will be releasing a redacted version of the Mueller report within a week.
From the New York Times:
Attorney General William P. Barr said he will deliver the Mueller report to Congress and the public within a week, reiterating his earlier promise to release it by mid-April.
Testifying before lawmakers, Mr. Barr said he would be transparent about redactions in the report. But he demurred when asked whether he has briefed the White House on it.
“My original timetable of being able to release this by mid-April stands,” says Attorney General Barr, referring to the Mueller report.“By within a week, I will be in a position to release the report to the public.”
Live updates: https://t.co/V3rK3Fhtfy pic.twitter.com/9wSNVhHx7O
— CNN (@CNN) April 9, 2019
Bill Barr reveals that Mueller team DID NOT have a role in drafting his letter to Hill outlining the top-line conclusions of Mueller report. Mueller team was offered a chance to review it but declined— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 9, 2019
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| Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin, Aidy Bryant |
Robert De Niro returned to SNL in his recurring role as special Counsel Robert Mueller for the show’s cold open last night.
In the skit, Mueller – along with Attorney General William Barr (Aidy Bryant) and Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin) – played out their separate roles in the release of the report from the Special Counsel.
From the New York Times:
Each performer offered an introduction at the start of the sketch. De Niro said, “Dear Attorney General Barr, officials from the Justice Department and esteemed members of Congress.”
Bryant said, “Hey, guys, William Barr here. You might want to sit down for this one.”
And Baldwin said, “Guess what? Guess what? Guess what? Daddy is about to freak.”
De Niro: “I am submitting these 380 pages.”
Bryant: “I am writing almost four pages.”
Baldwin: “I am reading zero pages, but Sean Hannity has read it and he was so excited that he texted me an eggplant.”
De Niro: “On the charge of obstruction of justice, we have not drawn a definitive conclusion.”
Bryant: “But I have, and my conclusion is: Trump’s clean as a whistle.”
Baldwin: “Free at last, free at last.”
Watch below.
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| Roger Stone |
Roger Stone, a longtime close adviser to Donald Trump, was arrested shortly after 6am this morning at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on multiple charges stemming from the ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
From The New York Times:
In an indictment unsealed on Friday, the special counsel disclosed evidence that a top campaign official in 2016 dispatched Roger J. Stone, a longtime adviser to President Trump, to get information from WikiLeaks about the thousands of hacked Democratic emails. The effort began well after it was widely reported that Russian intelligence operatives were behind the theft, which was part of Moscow’s broad campaign to sabotage the 2016 president election.
The indictment makes no mention of whether Mr. Trump played a role in the coordination, though Mr. Mueller did leave a curious clue about how high in the campaign the effort reached.: A senior campaign official “was directed” by an unnamed person to contact Mr. Stone about additional WikiLeaks releases that might damage the Clinton campaign, according to the court document.
Mr. Stone was charged with seven counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, making false statements and witness tampering.
You can read the full indictment here.
A reporter from CNN, David Shortell, had been staking out Stone’s house due to recent activity by the Special Counsel investigation.
According to neighbors, CNN has had a truck out in front of Stone’s house Thursday-Saturday since the midterm elections.
And last week, the investigation was negotiating an appearance by Jerome Corsi’s stepson. His legal team was told to pick a day for grand jury testimony “just not Friday.”
Donald Trump took to Twitter angry that CNN was there to capture the early morning arrest. The Trumpster alleged the Special Counsel’s office had tipped off the media so they could embarrass Stone.
CNN’s ability to capture the arrest of Roger Stone was the result of determined reporting and interpreting clues revealed in the course of events. That’s called journalism. #FactsFirst https://t.co/71zu7RylxX— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) January 25, 2019
As Stone left his indictment hearing, he struck a Nixon-like pose. Reminding the American people of a disgraced president who lied would seem to be an ‘interesting’ strategy.
pic.twitter.com/OnXCDlcyIK— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 25, 2019
As he comes down the steps for his post-indictment hearing news conference, Roger Stone, who was a Nixon campaign aide, strikes the Nixon double V pose. pic.twitter.com/5sWXvthvLs— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) January 25, 2019
Roger Stone tries to speak over chants of “Lock him up!” pic.twitter.com/Kxdo7KnDuO— Greg Hogben (@MyDaughtersArmy) January 25, 2019
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| Donald Trump |
According to ABC News, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has requested to interview Donald Trump regarding issues pertaining to obstruction of justice.
ABC News reports:
According to sources, the president learned within the last day that the special counsel will limit the scope of questioning and would like to ask questions both orally and written for the President to respond to.
According to sources familiar with the President’s reaction Wednesday morning, that was the genesis for his early morning tweet storm. Negotiations over a potential presidential interview have gone on for months, through several different iterations of the Trump legal team.
You’ll note Trump now says Manafort “worked for me for a very short time.”
When he won the election, he hailed Manafort’s great work.
Here’s the Twitter rant referenced in the ABC News report.
“FBI Agent Peter Strzok (on the Mueller team) should have recused himself on day one. He was out to STOP THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP. He needed an insurance policy. Those are illegal, improper goals, trying to influence the Election. He should never, ever been allowed to……..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018
…..remain in the FBI while he himself was being investigated. This is a real issue. It won’t go into a Mueller Report because Mueller is going to protect these guys. Mueller has an interest in creating the illusion of objectivity around his investigation.” ALAN DERSHOWITZ….— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018
..This is a terrible situation and Attorney General Jeff Sessions should stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now, before it continues to stain our country any further. Bob Mueller is totally conflicted, and his 17 Angry Democrats that are doing his dirty work are a disgrace to USA!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018
Paul Manafort worked for Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many other highly prominent and respected political leaders. He worked for me for a very short time. Why didn’t government tell me that he was under investigation. These old charges have nothing to do with Collusion – a Hoax!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018
Russian Collusion with the Trump Campaign, one of the most successful in history, is a TOTAL HOAX. The Democrats paid for the phony and discredited Dossier which was, along with Comey, McCabe, Strzok and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, used to begin the Witch Hunt. Disgraceful!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018
Looking back on history, who was treated worse, Alfonse Capone, legendary mob boss, killer and “Public Enemy Number One,” or Paul Manafort, political operative & Reagan/Dole darling, now serving solitary confinement – although convicted of nothing? Where is the Russian Collusion?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018
“We already have a smoking gun about a campaign getting dirt on their opponent, it was Hillary Clinton. How is it OK for Hillary Clinton to proactively seek dirt from the Russians but the Trump campaign met at the Russians request and that is bad?” Marc Thiessen, Washington Post— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 1, 2018